New Community homepage is live! :)

[Martin-O2]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure you've noticed if you've visited before, that our forum is looking a bit different today. We've been working hard for the past several months on making changes to the community homepage, and finally went live with the new version this morning!

We have been listening to your feedback from our discussions around what you like or don’t like on the homepage, passing it on to the designers and developers, along with ideas that you’ve come up with, and tried to get as much as possible included. A BIG thank you to everyone who have provided your views over the years. 

The update has brought several changes to the layout and to the different features of the page:

Welcome and search

• FAQs are linked from the top underneath the search bar, for quick look at the most-asked questions.
• If you're logged in, you have quick access to your latest posts right on the homepage. If you're logged out, you will see instead a login box and quick general information about what the community is about.
• Underneath that you have 3 quick links to help you get started: 1) info topic on what's the community about and how to get help, 2) topic listing all the different forum boards, and 3) the how-to guides board.

Notification Feed

A new feature on the right side of your avatar, next to your "My Settings", "Messages" (PMs) and "Unread posts" links when you are signed in. You can see a list of recent activity here related to topics you've participated in, e.g. if someone has given you a Kudos, replied to your posts, or @-mentioned you on the forum.

Community Topics and contributors

• See what everyone’s been chatting about with top and latest discussions.
• You can also help with unanswered questions or ask your own.
• You can see a list of current top contributors on the right

Most Popular Searches

• See the popular searches that others have made on the community to help you with your query

Latest News

• 3 latest topics that we've wanted to highlight!

Popular Topics

• Especially helpful for those looking for help: you'll see 2 most-used community how-to guides, with related Solved topics underneath.

Activity

• Some stats about the community where you can see number of active members and click into member search, number of members online (if they've set themselves visible in their settings) with a link to view all, total posts and questions solved.

We know that big changes can be annoying and even stressful to users if the old layout has been there for long (we had the previous look since 2014!!), and some of the abovementioned elements are both new and different from what we've had before. Now that the changes are live, we will be testing and monitoring over time to see how the page performs.

We'd love to hear your feedback:

We'd love to hear what you think of this new change. Do you like the design and feel of the homepage and its new sections? Do you think it's an improvement to the old design? What is your initial feeling around navigating the forum, finding and replying to topics, etc? 

Also, since we've just gone live today, don't hesitate to alert us if you see something that's not quite right. We've done a lot of testing but there can always be some lingering bugs or issues that we might have missed. 

Your continued feedback will be much appreciated as always to help us plan for future improvements. 

Cheers,

The Community Team

[Cleoriff]

I've just tried it on my phone @Glory1  and it's ok for me.

I wonder if it happened when maintenance was going on?

(Of course if it's still happening to you now, that won't be the reason as mine is fine)

[pgn]

Button displacement on Full View - Ask a Question crowds View All... 

Mobile view:

Full view:

Chrome Browser on Android. 

[jonsie]

I'm getting the same view on the mobile @pgn 

[Glory1]

Me too @pgn and I'm using Samsung Internet on my phone. It's why I'm constantly switching between full and mobile view. Too many inconsitencies between the two. Drives me nuts.

[Cleoriff]

I'm bumping this thread to ask 2 questions of @Martin-O2 and @EmilieT 

1) What's happening with the overlarge banner on the home page that everyone has complained about?

2) This next issue was happening before the home page went live but has never been sorted.

When reviews or guides go into the knowledge base (or whatever it's called now) and we click on an unread post relating to the guide, we are never taken to the last unread post.

It goes to the FIRST post made. We then have to scroll through 4-5 pages to get to the last post to give an answer or make a comment. Time consuming and I often don't bother.

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ACCESS THE GUIDE OR REVIEW FROM AN EMAIL, YOU ARE TAKEN TO THE LAST POST.

This has to be sorted soon as it's one of the most annoying issues on this forum.

[EmilieT]

@Cleoriff 

We’re still in the process of discussing the next steps around the homepage top banner with the different teams involved, and will let you guys know as soon as we have more information on what these steps will look like.

Regarding the unread posts for guides or reviews, and being taken to the top of the page rather than the actual unread post for those, Lithium has identified this as a bug in the platform and it is sitting with their development team. We have no ETA for a fix but it is in progress and we will share more details as and when we get them!

More to follow soon hopefully

[Cleoriff]

---

@EmilieT wrote:

@Cleoriff 

We’re still in the process of discussing the next steps around the homepage top banner with the different teams involved, and will let you guys know as soon as we have more information on what these steps will look like.

Regarding the unread posts for guides or reviews, and being taken to the top of the page rather than the actual unread post for those, Lithium has identified this as a bug in the platform and it is sitting with their development team. We have no ETA for a fix but it is in progress and we will share more details as and when we get them!

More to follow soon hopefully

---

Ok @EmilieT Thanks for that info

[jonsie]

Also pleasesort out the quote button as the first post in the thread is always quoted.

[pgn]

Quoth Alice... 😁

[gmarkj]

Has someone done something to the forum this morning?
Looks MASSIVELY different from yesterday/earlier...